Carrera hadn’t told many people that she was getting married, the Chicago Tribune reported, and the news seemed to surprise her neighbors as well, who had always seen her alone. She was a Spanish interpreter for a social welfare agency and apparently lived alone with her daughter and son, ages 9 and 2.

On Friday, though, Carrera married a 30-year-old man she’d been with, on and off, for three years, according to the Tribune. He was the father of her 2 year old. The Tribune newspaper has not named him because he has not been charged.

That night after the marriage, Carrera called family members, inviting them to join her on a party bus. When she called her cousin Sandy Lopez, she didn’t mention a wedding, perhaps because her cousin didn’t approve of the man Carrera was seeing.

"We are following several leads but have not named a suspect at this," Captain Joseph Ford of the Burbank Police Department told msnbc.com. "We will release more info tomorrow."

Carrera was supposed to pick up her children from her father’s house the next day, Saturday, but she never showed up. By 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, her family dispatched police for a well-being check.

"We never thought this would happen; she was a strong woman,” Jaime Lopez, a cousin, told the Tribune. “She loved her kids."

Jason Tokarczyk, a neighbor, told NBC Chicago that he hadn't noticed anything abnormal about Carrera. He described her as quiet.

"I seen her walking to her car, her and her son,” Tokarczyk said. “Hi and bye and that was it. I never ever seen her with a guy since I have been here, and I never seen her walking in and out with a guy at all."